User blog:Crazydanny1/Mythbuster Style/What If Scale conversions
So we were sitting around during a game session, chatting about scale differences and how it still wasn’t a perfect system. I mean, it works, but there are flaws in it. A character versus another character… There is no scale difference. Hence, if the bounty hunter “Mo Munny” shoots at “Derk Starblaster”, Derk dodges at his normal skill level with no bonuses and Mo doesn’t receive a bonus to hit Derk. But if Mo is shoot with a weapon mounted on the back of a speeder, designed to combat other speeders, which is speeder-scale, Derk gets a +2D bonus to dodge the shot. If Mo’s lucky and hits Derk, well then, Mo gets to apply +2D to the damage of the weapon. We’re probably looking at around 6D to 7D damage. Derk’s probably toast. The scale goes: (Based on a character trying to hit) Character: -0D bonus Speeder: +2D Walker: +4D Starfighter: +6D Capital: +12D Deathstar: +24D Now granted, using a Deathstar-scale weapon on a character is a bit overkill, but I’ve played with some gamers that would do it, just because they could. So what if the target gets +24D on top of their 6D+1 Dodge… The planet you were standing on is gone… Oops, you’re caught in the blast radius. Now I get to roll +24D on top of my normal damage. But… But, what if a character could be considered a threat to larger scaled targets? If you get literal, using nothing but statistics and game mechanics, it’s possible. So all of the sudden, you have Derk Starblaster who can bring the monstrous Empire to it’s knees. So, we’re going Mythbuster-style! We’re going to pit Derk Starblaster, armed with the bane of infantry, an E-web Heavy Repeater, against the… Deathstar! Laugh. Go ahead! We did too! So Derk shoots, easily hitting the Deathstar with the E-web. Under normal conditions, this isn’t even an issue. A GM should only have the player playing Derk roll a wild dice just to ensure there’s no mishap. Hitting a moon with a big gun is going to happen. So Derk got +24D to hit the Deathstar, which didn’t even attempt to dodge. Why would it? It’s the friggin’ Deathstar! Damage and resistance are rolled: The Deathstar resists at 147. Derk gets 36. Not even a close call. But… But what if the Deathstar was having a bad day behind the dice? So Derk shoots and hits. He rolls damage and gets a good roll of 47 points of damage. The Deathstar rolls and every dice comes up as “1”s… Pull the wild dice plus one more per normal rules. The total of the Deathstar’s roll is 42… HOLY CRAP! The Deathstar’s lightly damaged! The laws of averages say this is only going to happen once… Kind of like Luke’s one-in-a-million shot that toasted the first ‘star. But by using the rules, it could happen. Now then… Let’s pull out a big gun! Galen Marek, rather than attacking Vader and the Emperor on the inside of the Deathstar, decides to pull out the big whammy hammer of the Force and crush the Deathstar. “Don’t be too proud of this…” I’m sorry. Vader was right. The Force could be stronger. Galen attacks, trying to hit the behemoth with the Force, using his 10D Alter as the determining damage. After a successful attack, Galen gets 67 while the Deathstar resists with 131. Sorry secret apprentice. Not today. But then Galen decides to spend a Force Point. Same attack. The laws are frowning on the DS. It gets a bumper crop of ones again. Same as it was above, the DS resists at 42. Meanwhile, Galen literally uses the Force to crush the Deathstar with 119 points on his damage roll. That’s 77 points of damage! With our rules, anything over 24 points of damage is a splatter shot. Ummm… I think the Deathstar looks like a tin can right now. If Galen hadn’t done it that way, he was going to give himself over to the Dark side, call upon the Dark side, spend a Force Point and a Dark Side Point to triple his dice pool. Instead of hitting with 10D Alter or even 20D Alter, he’s throwing out 30D Alter! And the DS is going to have another bad roll! So, the DS rolls 42 to resist while the now dark, secret apprentice hits with 215 on his damage roll. That’s 173 points of damage and just like the Star Destroyer that he pulled down earlier, the Death Star is no more! I know it’s all a “What if” detailing of possibilities, but by the laws of averages and the rules, this could happen… once. Category:Blog posts